I: Odd

Koko, momo, banana, yes yes, mojo,no no, moko, coco...

Her first memory, bars. Bars like steel trees reaching up to frame patches of sky over the branches. Safe. Safe in the fur of her first mothers chest, and eyes taking in her every move. Adoring eyes. Human eyes. She yawned, her first yawn, and that was that, she was her second mother's darling.

Jude, at every feeding time, watching over her. Jude holding her tiny hands at every weight in.

By the time her first mother climbed the big branches higher than she had ever been, Jono was only startled for a moment. There, pass the steel trees, were hundreds of new faces, human faces. Like Jude, all with adoring eyes. She let out her first happy hoot, a silent squeak from her puckered lips

.

No one in the troop quite knew what the cards were for years later.

All Jono took in was their fun colors and shapes. They were simple, easy.

Why didn't the humans understand? They seemed to have lost something, and wanted desperately for she and her fellow young to identify them. Weren't their words enough?

By the time of their tenth gathering, Jono was the only one of the young chimps who hadn't quit in a rage over the human's stupidity.

How could I? Jono asked herself, trying her best not to roll her eyes. It's Jude asking, poor mom. She must be getting old now. She gets more and more excited every time I-

"Yellow. Jono, where is yellow?"

Jono sighed, pointing to the yellow square card.

"Yes! That's right! You're such a smart girl!" Jude laughed. Jono screeched in mock excitement, reaching with practiced skill for the woman's white sunhat. Jude smiled taking it off and perching it on the chimps small head.

"You know, Jono, how would you like another name? You're so smart, you could be the next Koko!"

Koko? Jono pulled the large hat up from over her wide eyes at the unknown word.

Jude grinned picking a flashcard from the pile.

"She's a gorilla. Go-ri-ll-a."

Jono looked at the small picture, taking off the sunhat and starting to chew on the brim.

Koko.

"I think that's enough for today, my little Moko."

Koko, Moko... Jono turned the new sounds around in her mind, picking at a few stray cards forgotten on the ground. Koko, moko, no no, mo... The sounds melted one into another easily, almost like a song. The k's with their sharp click like Jude's felt too sharp for her tongue, by the twentieth time sounding more like a j in her native language.

By long after sunset it was a song proper to Jono, falling on a faint melody so she didn't wake her sleeping family.

"Koko, momo..." She hummed happily."Banana, yes yes, mojo,no no, moko, coco..."

"No moko, banana,yes, mojo." She didn't notice the twin voice that had joined two verses ago, or the pink eyes in the darkness. The smell was overpowering and alien, chemical, smells of the room where she was weighted and occasionally jabbed with a sharp stick full of liquid. The smell of sickness.

She took in the lurking black shape, hiding beside a trash can, blending with its shadow. Smaller than her. Male. She sniffed again, fresh blood rising to meet her senses. Hurt.

"Hello? My name's Jono. Who are you?" She asked, taking care to mind her manners by not showing her teeth.

"Jojo." Came the weak reply, a brown shopping bag rustling from the can.

"Jojo...you're hurt! Where is your family? Do you live in another zoo tree?"

"I live nowhere. No family."

Jono, sat down where the bars of her home met the dusty earth, the small Jojo's voice dying down low, almost sounding unpracticed. How could a chimp have nowhere to belong to? No family?

He didn't look a bit like the humans, they left everyday to who knows where...

But a chimp with no troop? How...odd.

"You can..have my song? I just made it up." Jono said with an awkward tilt of her head.

The small shadow, now wearing a brown bag on his head paused, squinting from a distance.

Those pink eyes, cloudy, almost half blind.

He can't really see me. Somewhere in her stomach the realization gave her new feelings of empathy a sharp edge.

The night swallowed the running form away into the soft rain beyond the black bars.

Although she thought she heard the melody some nights when no one was awake, she never sang her song again.